Kadosh

December 26, 1872

Point Allerton

Bark Kadosh carrying hemp and sugar.

"The Kadosh, a large bark of 655 tons register, sailing from Yokohama, Japan, and Manila, Philippine Islands, with 500 piculs ( a Chinese picul was 133.3 pounds) of sapan wood, 8,920 mats (containers) of sugar, and 2,897 bales of hemp, dragged over Harding's Ledge on December 26, 1872, a few hours after Christmas. Built at East Boston in 1864, the vessel, with a crew of sixteen able-bodied seamen, was under Captain Matthews on his first voyage as master. With the bark beginning to break up, two boats put off but one swamped, and the captain was lost along with seven men. The navigational instruments, also in the swamped boat, could not be recovered. Two frostbitten stowaways, experiencing their first horrifying sight of ice and snow, were saved.

Tremendous waves continued to batter the Kadosh until she went to pieces about in line with the Ledge and Point Allerton. The hemp and wood were salvaged, but the sugar was contaminated. To ward off Pacific Ocean pirates, the bark had one cannon, which was secured from the wreckage. The armament decorated the front lawn of the Village of Hull library for a while. In later years, a grateful survivor, in a letter from Australia, that Hull people treated them 'as though they were there own sons.'"